George Weston Foods' Castlemaine site hosts Australia's largest robotic palletising system. The facility features 17 ABB robots, including 16 palletisers (IRB 4600) handling mixed product from 32 different packaging lines. The 217th robot (IRB 6640) dispenses pallets and slip sheets. Designed and installed by Andrew Donald Design Engineers, an ABB Robotics Australian Authorised Value Provider, the palletising line handles over 450 different smallgoods products at a rate of up to 9,000 cartons per hour. The robots have almost eliminated all previous OH&S issues associated with manual handling, whilst also reducing downtime & labour costs and allowing GWF to increase speed of production. The Castlemaine site is the processing facility for the "Don" and "KRCastlemaine" ranges of bacon, ham, and smallgoods.
